Tuesday, September 10, 2013

September, Merry Christmas and Max Moncur 9 2 13

Hello Family!

It's September! Being
the first "ber" month of the year, Christmas has officially started
in the Philippines. This was made sure as we started off our sacrament
meeting yesterday with the stirring "Angels We Have Heard On High"
(that's the one where we sing "Gloooooorrrrriiiiiiiaaaaaaa" several
times in a million different pitches - classic). So on top of shouting
that lovely song, I had the opportunity to yell my lungs out at this old guy
last night. He was... pretty darn old. He was also convinced that
even though he practically lost his hearing that if we really, truly howl our
hearts hearts out, he's hear us. Took me about five tries of good
screaming at him for him to stop speaking some sort of weird broken
English because he finally realized we speak Tagalog... He
said we could come visit him again. And on that note, it's been a good
week.

Probably the biggest,
most exciting part of the week was seeing some one from home. So shout
out to Elder Max Moncur! He got here on Wednesday last week (8/28/13)
and since he is in my zone, we got to pull some strings and go to his district
meeting on Friday! (see pictures). We went to lunch together after too (:
It was great to see him and catch up. It wasn't until though he
pointed it out that I realized how amazing it was to actually see
him. Here I am, been in some crazy group of islands in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean for the past year, being totally immersed in a foreign culture
and language so much so that I really do feel like I've become one of these
people., and now, just when I'm thinking my past life was just a dream, in
comes someone that I used to see at home and actually associate with!
Represent Santa Margarita Stake! Yes, I concede we did move to a
different stake just before I left, but... What a small world! Hah, not
sure if I'll ever be able to call him anything Elder rather than just Max.

And you know, it's
really going great right now. I had my foot saved the other day. I
had ingrown toenails that I thought I'd have to get surgery for, turns out my
mission president's wife just made me get a pedicure. But that's not the
same foot saving story I'm about to share (though it is certainly something for
another day). I was sitting on a triccy (those motorcycles with a side
car thing attached) on the motorcycle part facing sideways. We were going
down the road and I had me feet resting out pretty far. then, out of
nowhere, I quickly felt to "Pull my feet in!" A moment later,
"Whooooooooooshh!" - another triccy came down the road and would have
definitely swiped my feet had I not moved them. Phew! Anyways,
that's small. But it still shows me how protected and guided we really
are here.

So despite being
constantly tired, there's ever more for us to do. We got a call a few
days ago. There are going to be 14 new missionaries in our zone next
transfer! That's a lot! We had another journey with the supply
couple missionaries to find things for new apartments and what not. It
may be that the two-person party in our mansion home gets shut down. they
want two more elders here! Even though our fancy washing machine will be
more crowded, it's certainly still better than doing wash like in other areas.
For some reason, I'm thinking that washing clothes in a dirty river, no
matter how much soap you use, then leaving them on the sandy bank to dry is just
not going to result the most effective cleaning. Not sure. But I'm
thankful as ever for that machine!

And so the work
continues. I continue! Great new families and a bunch of
letters [ thanks! (: ] have added even more to this week. Love it!

Love, Elder Shane Scully
Brown

Pictures -

1. Max and I after
district meeting!

2. A tindahan.
Basically one of the hundreds of little shop things that line every
little street, in every little neighborhood.

3. Some different
kinds of bananas I eat. The big one costs 50 pesos per kilo and the small
only costs 3 pesos per kilo. (up to you to do those conversions)

4. This cloud
looking think was what I was pretty sure was going to turn into some crazy
tornado. Nothing happen...